Archive | Random Tables

OK, we know that next hex over has a dwarven settlement of some sort in it. First off, what’s the general purpose of that settlement? Dwarf Settlement Purpose (d6) 1-3: Mining 4-5: Military 6: Mercantile Assuming “traditional” dwarves, military establishments represent a stronghold or fortress protecting the mountains, hills, or land below the earth from […]

The PCs have stumbled across a castle in their travels. Who lives there? What are they up to? Well, I took a slightly different approach with this, and I thought the best ideas for what they are up to might come from the judge just thinking about what certain combinations of results below mean. For […]

Fantasy wilderlands are downright infested by bandits, brigands, and burglars of all stripes. Here are a couple of tables to help generate bandit camps. I’ve only concerned myself with the hit dice of the bandit’s leader, but bigger camps will surely have a few intermediaries with extra HD as well. 1d20: Bandit Leader HD / […]

I’ve already quoted Eliot’s apocryphal advice about great writers stealing in a previous post, but I’ve got to bring it up again here. Michael Curtis’s Dungeon Alphabet (also in PDF) is one of the most ostentatiously useful and fun system-neutral supplements even published; if you don’t own it, you should. So last night when I got […]

I did this once before as a d30 table, but that was clearly not a diverse enough set of options. Roll d100 for each column; there’s a 50% chance that the gender form of any title is inverted. D100 Title of Domain 1 Ajaw Vultures 2 Anax Wasps 3 Archbishop Floods 4 Archon Locusts 5 […]

Sure, there are the big bads everyone knows — Orcus, Demogorgon, Asmodeus — but sometimes a lesser-known hellish bureaucrat is called for. Here’s a random table to help with those occasions. Roll 1d30 for each column to determine the fiend’s rank and sphere of influence. There’s a 50% chance that a demon is depicted as female, […]

The PCs have bumped into some barbarians, and they’re either parleying or are already defeated and being hauled back to the village. Who do these guys answer to? I put this together with the Arcturun High Chiefs of the home game in mind, but it is certainly generic enough to work for just about any […]

After I posted my randomly generated city map, my buddy Bryan and I had an exchange about why I think Vornheim is better than the random city charts in the 3E DMG. Basically, I think it comes down to a philosophical difference: Vornheim is designed to help you come up with an answer you need […]